Settles v. State

• Court: Arkansas Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: BART F. VIRDEN, Judge
• Citation: Settles v. State, 2025 Ark.App. 243, 714 S.W.3d 294 (Ark. App. 2025)
• Docket Number: CR-24-385
• Decision Date: 23 April 2025
• Parties: Quinton Earl SETTLES, Appellant v. STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

714 S.W.3d 294

2025 Ark. App. 243

Quinton Earl SETTLES, Appellant

v.STATE of Arkansas, Appellee

No. CR-24-385

Court of Appeals of Arkansas, DIVISION IV.

Opinion Delivered April 23, 2025

APPEAL FROM THE PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT, FIFTH DIVISION [NO. 60CR-23-569], HONORABLE LATONYA HONORABLE, JUDGE

Law Offices of John Wesley Hall, by: Samantha J. Carpenter, for appellant.

Tim Griffin, Att’y Gen., by: Brooke Jackson Gasaway, Ass’t Att’y Gen., for appellee.

BART F. VIRDEN, Judge

₁Quinton Settles appeals his conviction by a Pulaski County Circuit Court jury of first-degree domestic battery. We affirm.

I. Relevant Facts

On October 31, 2023, Settles was charged by amended felony information with one count of first-degree domestic battery, one count of tampering (attempting to induce another person to testify or inform falsely), and one count of violation of a no-contact order.

On November 13, 2023, the State moved to admit statements under the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing, asserting that Settles’s conduct had caused the unavailability of the witness, Ruthia Jones. The State alleged that on November 22, 2022, Jones gave a statement to the police that Settles, her ex-boyfriend, had severely beaten her and thrown ₂her into a wooden hutch, which had caused her to be paralyzed. Jones did not report the allegations to police until two weeks after the incident because she waited until she was transferred to another facility, and Settles was no longer with her in the hospital.

Following Settles’s arrest, a no-contact order was issued on January 5, 2023. Despite this order, Settles called Jones 387 times and sent her 191 text messages from January 5 to October. During these communications, Settles instructed Jones to have the no-contact order removed and provided her with a script to recant her accusations against him. He promised her love, marriage, financial assistance, and medical care if she dropped the charges. Settles told Jones that “[she] won’t get in trouble” for ignoring the subpoena to appear in court, and he assured her that if she did not appear to testify, the charges would be dropped. Additionally, Settles involved a third party, “K Ray,” to pressure Jones into signing an affidavit recanting her accusations. Settles urged K Ray to call Jones and pretend to be an attorney’s assistant “to see where her head is at.” He instructed K Ray to “stay on her, bro.” Eventually, Jones ceased communication with the prosecutor and missed the meeting with the prosecutor scheduled for October 30.

On November 9, 2023, a hearing was held. The court ruled that only evidence available as of September 11, 2023, would be admissible, excluding everything obtained after that date.¹ The trial was scheduled for November 14, 2023, and on the morning of the trial, ₃a hearing was conducted to address final pretrial motions, including the State’s motion to admit Jones’s statements to investigators under the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing.

During the hearing, the State presented evidence that Settles’s conduct had caused Jones’s unavailability. Officer Aaron Nickson testified that he served Jones with a subpoena by telephone on October 31, 2023, but Jones expressed her unwillingness to testify and ceased communication on November 7, 2023. The State argued that Settles’s relentless phone calls and coercive behavior intimidated Jones, causing her to fear retaliation and refuse to testify. The court found that Settles’s actions constituted wrongful conduct that caused Jones’s absence, thereby extinguishing his right to confront her.

At the trial, Dr. Brian Hohertz, the emergency room physician who treated Jones, testified that she sustained a laceration to her right eye, paralysis of her lower extremities and left arm, and spinal fractures at C-6 and C-7.

Officer Anthony Strout of the North Little Rock Police Department testified that on the night of November 10, 2022, he was called to the Baptist Hospital emergency department in Little Rock to investigate a report of domestic battery. Strout recalled that Jones told him that she and Settles had gotten into an argument over a text message from another man, and she had decided to walk away from Settles when he grabbed her, slammed her head into the wall a few times, then picked her up and slammed her into a wooden hutch. Jones stated that she fell to the floor and heard a snap and realized she could not move. Settles told her to get up, and he punched her face when she did not. When Settles realized that Jones was paralyzed, he placed her on the couch and called an ambulance.

₄Detective Lonnell Tims testified that he visited Jones at the hospital on the evening of November 22 when Settles was not in Jones’s room. Detective Tims recalled that when he took her statement that evening, Jones was emotional and afraid but that she was lucid, alert, and not under the influence of any drugs. A transcript of the interview was provided to the jury. Detective Tims’s testimony was the same as Officer Strout’s regarding Jones’s statement about how Settles caused her injuries. Additionally, Detective Tims testified that Jones told him that when she first arrived at the hospital Settles lied to the staff, telling them that she had fallen. Jones explained that Settles was always with her at the hospital, stating that “he would be by her side and the only time he would leave would be for a few hours after she was fed and given medication to sleep, and then she would wake up and he would be back in the room.” She told Detective Tims she was terrified, worried about her living situation, and afraid for her future. Jones stated that her long-term prognosis was that she might be able to regain the ability to walk and have feeling in her limbs in a year, but that was not certain. Detective Times testified that on February 9, Jones called him to let him know her new phone number and address at the rehabilitation facility. He recalled that at the time, Jones was calm and relieved to hear of Settles’s arrest but still worried about her future in general. He explained that in his experience, people often delayed reporting domestic violence because they are still afraid of the perpetrator, or they feel guilty.

The jail record of Settles’s phone calls was admitted into evidence, and the audio recording of the relevant calls was played for the jury. The jury heard Settles tell Jones, “If I get convicted, then I’m not going to be able to be around…. When these folks put me in ₅court and convict me, I’m not going to be able to be around you, woman. Is that what you want?” Settles told Jones, “As long as you don’t come to court, then they have to throw it out. I need to be there so I can take care of you.” He told Jones he wanted to marry her, and she responded that she wanted him to treat her “the way that you’re supposed to. You have times when you let your anger get the best of you.” Settles repeatedly instructed Jones not to answer phone calls from the prosecutor and urged her to recant her previous statements. He told her that she needed to tell the investigators that she was on heavy medication when she made the statement,

otherwise I am not going to see you for a long time. Do you want that? You don’t want me back there helping you?

You can call and get me a speedy court date. Just say that you’re somebody else, and you can call the NLRPD to get that thing taken off of me. I’m trying to be there to get back to you.

In summary, the recordings showed that Settles repeatedly instructed Jones to lie, avoid the prosecutor, get the no-contact order lifted, and swear an affidavit recanting her previous statements. During some of the phone calls, he yelled at her. At one point, Jones told Settles to stop calling her, but Settles continued to call.

After the close of the State’s case, Settles moved for a directed verdict. He argued that the State had not met its burden of proving “that there was a manifest extreme indifference to the value of human life or the other elements required for domestic batter[ing] one[.]” The trial court denied the motion. The defense rested without calling any witnesses, and Settles renewed his motion for a directed verdict, which was denied.

₆Settles was found guilty of first-degree battery and sentenced to twenty years’ incarceration in the Arkansas Division of Correction. Settles timely filed his notice of appeal, and this appeal followed.

II. Discussion

A. Sufficiency of the Evidence

[1] For his second point on appeal, Settles contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s decision that the injuries he caused Jones were under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life.² We disagree.

[2–7] On appeal, we treat a motion for directed verdict as a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. Caple v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 41, at 5, 569 S.W.3d 353, 357. When reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we do not weigh the evidence; we determine whether the evidence in support of the verdict is substantial. Galvin v. State, 323 Ark. 125, 127, 912 S.W.2d 932, 933 (1996). Substantial evidence is that which is forceful enough to compel reasonable minds to reach a conclusion one way or the other. Id., 912 S.W.2d at 933. Evidence is not substantial if it leaves the fact-finder only to speculation and conjecture in choosing between two equally reasonable conclusions and merely gives rise to a suspicion. Surridge v. State, 279 Ark. 183, 185, 650 S.W.2d 561, 562 (1983). Furthermore, “[t]his court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and only evidence supporting ₇the verdict will be considered.” Id. In determining whether there was substantial evidence to support the verdict, this court looks at all the evidence presented, including any evidence that is alleged to have been admitted in error. See Arendall v. State, 2010 Ark. App. 358, at 7, 377 S.W.3d 404, 410; Rounsaville v. State, 2009 Ark. 479, at 7, 346 S.W.3d 289, 293; Goodwin...